Treating sick pilgrims as well as locals at the inaccessible Char Dham will now be easier as specialists sitting far away can advise the best possible treatment through satellite-based telemedicine centres. The Union Health Ministry will soon initiate pilot projects at these places of pilgrimages, usually thronged by a large number of devotees.
A senior official from the Health Ministry said under a telemedicine pilot project for providing citizen services, it is envisaged to establish SATCOM-based telemedicine centres at Char Dham and other important places of pilgrimage in the country.
Nestled in the lofty peaks are the four most holy pilgrimages of India — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnathji and Badrinathji, collectively referred to as the Char Dham (or four pilgrimage centres) of Hinduism.
“Also, in ambit of this project, it is envisaged to provide
e-health services in one district each in Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in the disciplines of medicine, ophthalmology, ENT, oncology, cardiology and dermatology,” he said.
The project is a part of the Government’s e-health initiatives to improve primary health services in rural and underserved areas.
The move followed a working group’s draft on Ministry’s National Telemedicine Network plan to establish National Telemedicine Network plan across the country including North East Region (NER) for providing better and effective health services to the citizens.
In the first phase of National Telemedicine Network project, it is proposed to connect 10 Primary Health Centres (PHC) at remote/rural locations with respective District Hospital. “The District hospital will itself be networked with medical college in the State,” said the official.
At every level of care, a tele-consultation facility (equipped with advanced remote healthcare equipment) will be created for providing online medical consultation in the disciplines of medicine, ophthalmology, ENT, oncology, cardiology and dermatology.
It is also envisaged to provide a mobile telemedicine unit in every district, the official added. Overall, there would be 600 telemedicine nodes covering 30 plus States. The project is aimed to cover about ten crores population with the creation of telemedicine nodes geographically present in every State.
The Pilot project will run for two years with support of the Government and thereafter depending on the outcome, it will be considered for scaling up in other States.